Stu1983

Thanks to headkaze's excellent work we now have a set of XMLs with all the data from AllGames.com so I thought I get a topic going for Step 3 of the database project... replacing the Categories in the current databases with the categories from AllGames.com I wrote a quick and dirty app that'll go through each XML grabbing the game name and category which I then output to a txt file So now I have a txt file for every XML Now is were the fun begins I'm not really too sure what to do now... my initial thought was to merge all the txt files into 1 big list of games and categories, doing this would mean that even if a game wasn't covered in AllGames for 1 system it may been in their database for another system and if its the same game name it should be the same category, what do you think? I could then write a tool similar to my FuzzyTextMatch to match up the names in the reference file with the names in the DB's This seemed all well and good but the txt file, after removing duplicates, has 26000 entries which on the fastest machine in my work (2x 3ghz dual core and 8 gigs of ram) takes almost an hour to process with FuzzyTextMatch though FuzzyTextMatch is only using 1 of the available 4 CPUs I'm now wondering if maybe I should write something to grab all the names from all the databases and run that through FuzzyTextMatch with the 1 big list of games and categories, I'm sure will take quite a long time but at least we wouldn't have to do it for every mdb. I could divide up the results so that a few of us can check them and finally have another tool that will then take the confirmed results and make the changes to the MDBs for us? How does this sound Nologic? I haven't bothered uploaded the individual txt files as I don't see them being of any use to anyone so there's no point in wasting Tom's bandwidth but if you want them PM me and I'll send you them Stu

@headkaze That sounds brilliant... sounds like a lot of work too Your CPViewer will be the ultimate companion for GameEX Still haven't tried the current version as I'm using customs resolutions in MAME but I can't wait to give it a try once you get that sorted, if you need any help testing the custom res option give me a shout @slipstream19 These files would really be much use to you unless you've been folowing the Beta DB's topic Stu

Thanks headkaze, I'll get a look into doing something with this for the categories in the mdbs when I get some free time... just as a side note, when you finally get around to updating your LCDPlugin to support the pacdrive, can you make it as an optional extra that can be enabled and disabled? I currently use the LEDWiz and your pluging to control my buttons but I'm thinking of adding a PacDrive to my cab so I can do my own thing with it, or maybe the PacDrive will support more than 1 program accessing it unlike the LEDWiz Thanks for your great work Stu

I wouldn't mind a copy of that too please headkaze if you don't mind Stu

I see what your talking about now... currently we have 3 fields... we have Category, Sport and Non-Sport... GameEx only looks at the Category field so we shouldn't need to touch the Sport and Non Sport Fields though these could possibly be merged into a single Genre field or something? I think we just need to rename the Category Field to "Multi Category" or similar and then add a new Category field for the AllGames categories Stu

Sounds good, just wondering where you came up with the name "Non-Sport"? Would "Multi Catergory" not make more sense:) Anyway I'll have to leave the AllGames bit to you as I've no idea where to start writing a script to grab the Catergory but if you get 1 wrote I'll certainly help running it on the databases As Tom ever said if he's willing to support multiple name fields? Stu

No worries the logos are looking great C64 finished processing just as I was about to turn the screen off so I thought I'd get it totally finished before bed [PC] Commodore 64 Whats next now? Stu _PC__Commodore_64.zip

I see nobody else got around to finishing these off so here's the rest [Console] Fairchild Channel F [Handheld] Atari Lynx [Handheld] Bandai Wonderswan [Handheld] Bandai WonderSwan Color [Handheld] Nintendo Game Boy Advance [Handheld] Nintendo Virtual Boy [Handheld] SNK Neo-Geo Pocket [Handheld] SNK Neo-Geo Pocket Color [Handheld] Tiger Electronics Game.com [PC] Tandy TRS-80 CoCo As far as I can see there's only 1 more left that has a GoodTool counterpart thats [PC] Commodore 64 It's taking a bit longer to run so I'll leave it untill the morning... I need my beauty sleep now Stu _Console__Fairchild_Channel_F.zip _Handheld__Atari_Lynx.zip _Handheld__Bandai_Wonderswan.zip _Handheld__Bandai_WonderSwan_Color.zip _Handheld__Nintendo_Virtual_Boy.zip _Handheld__SNK_Neo_Geo_Pocket.zip _Handheld__SNK_Neo_Geo_Pocket_Color.zip _Handheld__Tiger_Electronics_Game.com.zip _PC__Tandy_TRS_80_CoCo.zip _Handheld__Nintendo_Game_Boy_Advance.zip

I haven't made up the categories I mentioned above, I just noticed that those 8 are the only different categories that are being used in the new sets that we've been working on, they're already in comma delimited format just calling out to be used in my multi category setup which is why I asked I think if Tom can't/won't support a multi category format then the single category format over at AllGame is looking like the next best option, it would just be a shame to loose the multi format categories we have if there's any chance of Tom adding this feature in the future Stu

Tom, I'm just looking at all the categories in the new database set that we've been working on and although there are 133 seperate categories they actually only consist of 8 basic categorys: Action Adventure Educational Racing / Driving Role-Playing (RPG) Simulation Sports Strategy but each game may be in a few of categorys like "Action, Adventure, Educational" is there anyway you could parse the category when your loading it into GameEx and split them at each comma I think it would be more intuitive that instead of a game with having a seperate category called "Action, Adventure, Role-Playing (RPG), Strategy" that that game would instead be selectable in all 4 categories? Stu

Updated to version 1.1 which has folder mode support so you can load and modify all your MDBs in 1 go, I've tested it with all the new MDBs we were working on and it works on them all apart from "[Console] Atari 5200" for some reason. @SpyDIRmaN Thats not a bad idea I'd quite like to do something like that but I don't know when I'll find the time, I've another non gaming related project to work on, I'll definately have a think about it though. Stu

I'd talked about creating a tool to do this before I went on holiday (can't remember the post) and I finally got around to making it. Basically it's a tool to help edit the categories in the MDB game database files. Simply drag n' drop the MDB into the box, make your changes and hit the update button, I recommend making a backup of your MDB just in case If I get a bit more time I'll add an option to load all the categories in all the MDBs in 1 go so they can all be edited in 1 swoop but you'se can test this for me first before I get carried away Stu MDB_Category_Editor.zip

Looks like you've got your work cut out for you headkaze, it changes back to the desktop resolution when you minimize mame then back to the low res when your restore Stu

Good thinking here's the ini for MetalSlug I had to change a few things in the MAME ini as well but I can't remember what so I've included it too I'll check out what happens when I minimize MAME shortly Stu ini.zip

I'm not too sure how you can test it without an ArcadeVGA or similar, how are you going to see the output at low res? I've attached my INI folder which has all my custom generated resolutions for mame 117 but if your card can't output the resolutions or you screen can support them I don't know what advantage they'll be. I have an idea though, I have UltraVNC installed on my cabinet and if I take control of the cabinet from my 2nd PC while playing a mame game with a low res then it will appear in a window on my 2nd PC, so even if you can see anthing on your test machine if you VNC'd to it you should probably be able to see everything from another PC Stu

Do you think low resolutions will be possible in the future headkaze? I'd love to use this in my cab but I don't want to loose my arcade resolutions Stu

I liked this feature of Xpadder as I have all my retro pads settup to use a default key set so that at anytime I can plug any pad into my cabinet and it will control whatever game in whatever emulator I happen to be playing Stu

Cool, I'll look forward to 119 Brian, I'm still on 117 at the moment I'm not long back from holidays, 118 came out just before I left and if I remember right there were some config changes between 117 and 118, what was that all about? If I update am I going to have to reconfigure per game controls or anything like that? Thanks Stu

Give KaraFun a try I wrote a script a while ago to get it working in GameEx, it supports MP3 with Cdgs and Mpg's and Avi's it also supports zip files containing the mp3 and cdg, the post with my script to get you going is here: http://www.gameex.info/forums/index.php?sh...&hl=karafun Stu

My thoughts are with you and your family Brian Stu

I still live in hope this theme might some day work at 640 by 480 so I can you'se it in my cab Stu

Others and me myself, requested this along time ago but nothing every happened Stu

No problem you can get it here You might want to take a read at that whole thread I've a couple of tools there that should help getting your sets nice and clean Stu

Well done Brian Stu

Surely a shortcut only breaks if the file it links to has been deleted? Which would mean you would have to have uninstalled the game or something meaning the game wouldn't work anyway, so how is having all your pc games set to use an individual slot going to make the game work and better than the shortcut would've? GameEx just works like a shortcut, it just launches the exe but if the exe doesn't exist it can't do anything? I don't use shortcuts myself I create a batch file for each pc in my cabinet so I can launch extra commands to changes controls an stuff before the game launches Stu